The following has been sent to both the Kelowna Daily Courier and Penticton Herald for publication.

Cpl. Dan Moskaluk of the Southeast District RCMP has replied to public concern over the acquisition of a paramilitary tactical armoured vehicle for this part of BC (see below).

To refresh the memory of readers, the 18 TAVs deployed across Canada are, according to the RCMP news release announcing the fleet delivery, “designed to maximize safety for a wide range of incidents that the ERTs face, including hostage takings, armed standoffs, barricaded persons and search and rescue operations.”

Supt. Tim Head, operations officer for the Southeast District, has added that "their specific mandate is safely addressing situations requiring highly skilled training and equipment to resolve critical incidents. In practical terms, this means they are called to perform law enforcement functions in situations that are normally more dangerous, challenging and often more prolonged than typical police work.”

Cpl. Moskaluk illustrates the need for such a vehicle by reminding the public of the “latest incident” where the TAV was deployed – in Princeton, where “we responded to the tragic and violent double homicide, triple shooting, incident which occurred over the Easter weekend.”

But was this triple shooting actually a “critical” incident urgently requiring tactical paramilitary force?

In fact, it would have taken about 90 minutes to reach Princeton from Kelowna, where the ERT musters when deployed, given that the maximum road speed of TAVs is about 100 km/h. The hail of bullets that killed two and injured one was over before RCMP deploying from Princeton itself arrived to the scene. The suspect was arrested at another location some fourteen hours later “without incident,” according to a media report. “Neighbours said they were not worried about the shooting, because they felt it was an isolated incident related to either drugs or a previous theft of some guns.”

Was this not an incident where the tactical vehicle was deployed for no better reason than the Southeast District RCMP now have a tactical vehicle?

Bradley Balko writes in Overkill – The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America, that until the 1980s, SWAT teams and other paramilitary units were used only in volatile, high risk situations. In 1980, there were 2,884 SWAT deployments in the U.S.

Today, there are more than 50,000 a year. At least eighty per cent of those deployments are for the purpose of serving narcotics warrants. According to Balko, they are very often bungled, resulting in unnecessary violence, and needless deaths and injuries. At best, they needlessly subject non-violent offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the “terror” of having their homes invaded by paramilitary agents.

The Canadian public ought to be told that that’s the risk when police forces turn away from the modern model of community policing and minimal use of force toward the archaic model of paramilitary policing and escalated force. “Given that civilian police now tote military equipment, get military training, and embrace military culture and values,” Balko writes, “it shouldn’t be surprising when officers begin to act like soldiers, treat civilians like combatants, and tread on private property as if it were part of a battlefield.”

To me, the question ‘why are we going down the paramilitary path’ has not yet been answered. Still awaiting a response from the Minister of Public Safety, Vic Toews, to that question and numerous others, I do expect the Minister will not want to talk about Hollywood’s fascination with and glamourization of paramilitary policing.

I also expect the Minister will want to ignore the uncomfortable truth a military trainer told me he observed back in the 1980s, when he helped transition Canadian military operations over to police forces. “I remember thinking it wouldn't go well. The cops were getting off on it.”

Nor will the Minister likely want to have any discussion about what Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex, and the huge profits defense manufacturers stand to make when police forces become militarized throughout an entire country.

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